Spring Break!!!!

Monday was my final for my 1st quarter of the RN program!!  1 down 2 to go!  I got an A- on the final and an A in the class!!  Sweetness!  I have been busy the last few days.  I went on a short geocaching trip with a my friend, Kyle98632.  I wanted to go geocaching today but Craig had a final this morning and I had to work tonight.  We are trying to plan a hike for next week.  I also have many crafts that I have been working on!  I will keep you updated but I am taking much needed break!

Classics Challenge 2010

I decided to participate in a reading challenge I found online.  Check it out here.

I am going to do the Classic Snack plus the bonus.  So I have to read 4 classic novels and a 5th future classic.  The future classic is based on a list made by the participants.  The time period to complete this challenge is April 1st-October 31st 2010.

I decided to go with books I already have on my bookshelf to save money and possible late fees at the library.  Here is the list I have come up with:

1. Watership Down- Richard Adams

2. Sometimes a Great Notion- Ken Kesey

3. A Brave New World- Aldous Huxley

4. The Scarlet Letter- Nathaniel Hawthorne

For my bonus book I chose Princess Bride- William Goldman.  I will either have to buy this book or get it from the library since I don't have it.  When I saw this on the list I knew I had to read it!

Geocaching day trip.

On February 20th we went on our first geocaching run since I finished the 200 day streak.  I was so relieved that I no longer had to cache every day that I took a break.  It was a much needed break because it was becoming pretty stressful since I was going to school full-time and working.  But I digress.


I thought I would share some pictures and info on our finds.


Our first stop was Westside Smiley (GC2206N).  This cache was a easy park and grab.  Biggest obstacle was the cars passing by.  I attempted to get this one while on my caching streak but it was getting dark and I had a flashlight on the side of the road.  It was making me nervous so I left.  It was nice to go and make the grab finally.


The next cache we grabbed was Uncle Cook Chinook (GC23X6K).  You had to park in a parking lot and had to walk about 0.25 miles to get there.  I like these much better than the park and grabs.  You are able to enjoy the surroundings.  The area was a dredge spoils after the Mt. St. Helens eruption.  It was neat to see how the area is beginning to come back to life with new grass and bushes.  

 This is on our walk to the cache site.  What awesome weather we had!

Then we were on to the next cache, Caseys Cache (GC1N7T).  This cache a short drive up a gravel hunting road.  We are always taking our cars in places we probably shouldn't for the sake of caching.  The trees all around were great.  There as moss everywhere!

 Mossy Trees.

On to the next cache, Peter Cottontail (GC1HN7K).  This cache was in horrible shape!  There was a ton of water inside.  I was able to sign 1/2 our name on the log.  It was in really bad shape.  Also in our area there are a lot of caches in the area that will have fake caches hidden near ground zero with funny notes inside saying to keep looking, etc.?  It usually makes me groan but I find that fun sometimes.  

Does this happen in your area also?

 Me finding the "Cache".  Nope not it.

The next cache was at a really neat place.  The cache was Olequa Creek Trail and Overlook (GC1HN5G).  We drove down to the end of a road that used to have a bridge to the other side of the river.  The bridge isn't there anymore but here is it's remnants.  We walked down a short trail to the cache.  Really neat area.  On the way out we snapped some pictures of some cows on the neighboring farm.

 How do I get across??

Cows!  I love how the black cow is staring me down.

On to the next cache, A Craftea Hide, (GC22ADI).  This one was located on the outskirts of McMurphy Park.  This cache was pretty good.  We have seen quite a few of these types of finds so it wasn't too hard.  While at the cache site we had to hurry because some people were coming up to the cache on horseback.  It was a neat site to see.

The next cache was in the same park.  McMurphy Park (GC1XYXJ) is a cache hidden by our friends, Footloose and Fancy Free so we were excited to find there cache.  We looked and looked but just didn't find it.  Based on the logs it looks like it is a really good hide so we will have to go back to find this one.  The cache site was along a creek so it was a really neat spot.

 Sign coming into the park.

 The calming creek.  Something about running water.

We had time for one more cache that day and we didn't want to end on a DNF so off we headed to, Bridge Over Untroubled Waters (GC1XYXR).  The cache hide was simple enough and lucky for us it was located near a bridge over this lovely creek.  Our day turned out to be near lots of water!  Snapped a few pictures while we were there.

 A look at the stream.

A different angle.  So gorgeous!

It was a great day!  We found 7 of 8 attempts.  Not too bad.  It felt great getting back to normal caching.  Craig and I get to plan our trips together and it makes it so much more enjoyable.  I look forward to warmer weather and no school this summer!  

P.S.  To my geocaching readers...sorry I haven't been blogging about my geocaching adventures but I haven't been on many adventures lately. :(

Last Photo Sunday

This is the last photo on my camera.  We went down to Portland for dinner with some friends that were in town visiting family.  We haven't seen them in a few years!

I cropped the bottom of the picture out.  I like the panoramic effect.

Postcrossing 13!

This postcard comes from Marilia from the capital of Brazil, Brasilia.  She is planning to study law.  The picture on the front of the postcard shows the Central Bank building on the right.  This is the South Bank Sector at night.

From: Marilia

Brasilia, Brazil

Distance: 6,304 mi (10,145 km)

Received: December 14, 2009

Travel Time: 16 days

March 12 of 12.

Spent the morning with my mom crafting.

My completed Christmas napkins.

Had to go the hospital for my final clinical evaluation.

I need to update my Postsecret account and put these in the postcard album.

Lukus P. Bugtussle

Crafting.

Felt donut complete!

Old School Mario Party.

My turn!

Got bumped while taking this picture.  I like it anyway.

Scary shot.  Just a yawn though.

My finished felt food. A donut, egg, and ravioli.

Jacob's Quilt!

My best friend, Michelle had her first child on October 22, 2009.  I was lucky enough to be there with her and her family to experience the event.  If you have been reading for awhile I have mentioned a few times that I want to be a midwife so that was an awesome opportunity for me.  Prior to the birth I started working on a quilt for Jacob.  I had no idea how to sew so my mom has helped me with this project every step of the way.  Here are some pictures through the process.

The fabric.

My mom helping me cut my fabric.

Everything cut out.

Top is finished.

Mom putting on the binding

Sewing on the binding

Finished Quilt

Top of Quilt (finished)

Bottom of Quilt (finished)

Michelle, Ken, and Jacob with the new quilt.

Me and Jacob with the quilt.

I thought that I did a really great job considering that I just starting sewing last summer.  I couldn't have done it without my mom though.  She helped me every step of the way.  I don't plan on doing any more quilts at the moment but I will probably do some more in the future.  I definitely like to sew and am excited to make new things.  I want to get a better sewing area setup though.  Hopefully the next place we live I can set something up.  I will put up some other craft projects as I go.

Anniversary Beach Trip

Craig and I wanted to do something to celebrate our anniversary but we are trying to save some major cash for a big trip I will tell you about eventually (if it works out) so we didn't want to do anything major or expensive.  We had talked about going on a short delorme trip on some of the islands in the Puget sound.  Instead we decided to stay in a beach house owned by my best friend's parents.

We left Saturday morning fairly early.  I had the GPS loaded up with some geocaches so I was ready to go.

Our first cache of the day was, STOP!! Just where do you think you are going?.  This was a quick and easy cache to find.  Next, on to a quick virtual cache, Are You A Keen Observer?.  This was an interesting virtual.  Too bad I can't give out the interesting tidbit of info I had to email the owner.

Our next stop takes us to an open field called Mickey Dietrick Memorial Field.  It is a launch site for RC planes.  We were lucky enough to see a few while searching for the cache, Mickey's Field.  Craig took some pictures of the planes while I located the cache.

RC plane landing.

Another RC plane.

Walking towards the next cache, Room With A View, there were some great views.

This is an old gun battery site.  Cape Disappointment (formerly Fort Canby) was armed with cannons to protect the mouth of the Columbia river against enemy attack.

Overgrown trail to the cache.

Picture of us at ground zero.

Our view from the room.

Windblown tree.

B&W photo from cache site of the North Head Lighthouse.

There wasn't a cache at the lighthouse but we decided to go visit it anyway.

This is the South Jetty as seen from the top of the lighthouse.  We payed a few bucks to go to the top.  Also, the volunteer taking money was from the same town as me, West Allis, WI.

A full view of the lighthouse.

We stopped at another cache, Mom and Girl, which was a fairly quick park and grab.  Not the most exciting cache find but it wasn't bad.  Then we were on to the next cache of the day.  Our personal friend, Kyle98632, had taken a trip to Long Beach to hide a cache (World's Longest Beach Cache) so of course we had to find it.  

I really like this picture for some reason.  This is me looking at something wearing our geobag.  This was somewhere close to ground zero.

Me with the cache.

That was the last cache for the day.  We decided to head to the beach house and play some board games.  We had a good time listening to records, playing games, and doing homework.  Yes, I said homework.  Craig and I both had a lot of homework so we had to bring it with.  I had my first test of the quarter the following Monday.  You will all be happy to know that I got an 88% on it though!  Side note for anyone who is interested in board games.  Craig and I played a game called Khet (I won!).  Khet is a 2 player game similar to chess with lasers.  Very fun.  Check this out: http://www.khet.com/news.html.  Scroll down and there is a picture of some soldiers holding the game.  Craig is on the right!

The following morning we walked down to the beach and flew my kite.  Gotta love a two string stunt kite.

Craig making the kite go in circles.

Me flying the kite.

We found 2 more caches before we went home:

Five Feet From Ground Zero

Elves Love Ocean Park

The weather was begin to get yucky and Craig doesn't like bad weather caching (I have gotten used to it) so we stopped at 2.  It was a wonderful way to spend the weekend with my wonderful husband.  6 years and still going strong!